VZCZCXRO4022
OO RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHBC #0035/01 0771212
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 181212Z MAR 06
FM REO BASRAH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0272
INFO RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHBC/REO BASRAH 0290

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BASRAH 000035 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/18/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PTER KISL IZ
SUBJECT: WE WERE TORTURED BEFORE -- NOW IT IS MUCH WORSE 
 
REF: BASRAH 158 
 
BASRAH 00000035  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: KEN GROSS, REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO BASRAH, 
DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: KEN GROSS, REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO BASRAH, 
DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary:  On March 14, the Regional Coordinator (RC) 
and Deputy Regional Coordinator (DRC) met with Khalid Al Mullah, 
a prominent Sunni sheikh and imam in Basrah.  Sheikh Khalid said 
that he considered the Coalition friends and liberators, not 
occupiers.  All violent acts should be condemned in his opinion, 
regardless of the religion of the perpetrator.  He said his 
primary goal was to combat the image of Sunnis as terrorists. 
Unfortunately, he said, the situation in southern Iraq had 
worsened considerably for the Sunni population in the past three 
years, and "thousands" of Sunnis were leaving Basrah for other 
countries.  End Summary. 
 
Condemning Terrorism 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C)  On March 14, the RC and DRC met with Sheikh Khalid Al 
Mullah, a prominent Sunni sheikh and imam in Basrah.  Sheik 
Khalid's mosque congregation is "small," in his words, numbering 
about 500 people, yet he said that he has become a well-known 
figure in Basrah for his speaking out against terrorism, 
including Sunni terrorists, and for his public support of the 
Coalition as friends and liberators.  He said he condemned the 
murder of U.S. citizen Tom Fox, and the bombings in Madrid and 
London.  He placed a computer disk on the office table and 
stated that here was proof that he had publicly denounced 
Zarqawi as a terrorist. 
 
¶3.  (C)  For his outspokenness against Sunnis who committed 
terrorist acts and his public support of the Coalition, Sheikh 
Khalid said that he had drawn criticism from senior Sunni 
leaders.  His name was crossed off the list of Sunnis invited to 
go to the hajj this year, and he believed it was because of his 
public support for the Coalition.  He said that he had received 
numerous threats, which he attributed to his condemnation of 
Sunni terrorists.  He chuckled, saying that he had only one 
bodyguard, who had only one old gun that did not even function, 
to protect him. 
 
¶4.  (C)  As an Islamic scholar, he believed that all acts of 
terrorism and violence are forbidden by the Koran.  Shia imams 
in Basrah, including Al Mousawi, sympathized with him and lent 
their support to him, he said.  Public attendance at his Friday 
sermons had increased recently, and public audiences applauded 
his denunciation of Zarqawi as a terrorist. 
 
¶5.   (C)  The worst thing, Sheikh Khalid said, is that Iraqi 
Sunnis were developing a reputation as terrorists.  He described 
how Jordanian security agents confiscated his passport during a 
trip to Jordan last October, and how he had to return to Iraq 
after a few days without the medical treatment he had been 
seeking.  He believed this happened because all Iraqi Sunnis are 
being treated as potential terrorists.   He worried that the 
Shia population in the south would exact retribution on Sunnis 
for acts of violence carried out by Sunni terrorists in Baghdad. 
 "If Sunni leaders in Baghdad do not change their political 
agenda, we will be the ones who will pay for it," he predicted. 
 
Before, We were Tortured - Now It Is Much Worse 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------- 
 
¶6.  (C)  The situation of Sunnis in Basrah has deteriorated 
recently, Sheikh Khalid said.  "Before, we were tortured, but 
now it is much worse."  Under Saddam, Sunnis in southern Iraq 
drew the ire of the Shia majority population.  Now that Saddam 
and his Sunni regime have been replaced, Sunnis in southern Iraq 
are both blamed for Saddam's regime of terror and have no 
protection.  He pointed out that out of the 41 seats on the 
Basrah Provincial Council (BPC), none of them are held by 
Sunnis.  Employment opportunities for Sunnis are non-existent. 
Sunnis are subjected to random detentions in Basrah, and men in 
police uniforms have assassinated Sunni scholars. 
 
¶7.  (C)  He identified the militia-infiltrated Serious Crimes 
Unit (SCU) of the Iraqi police as behind the assassination of a 
Sunni sheikh last year.  Iranian intelligence agents, he said, 
moved freely in Basrah and carried out revenge killings for 
wrongs done during the Iran-Iraq war.  He said that he believed 
 
BASRAH 00000035  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
the recent upsurge in murders in Basrah were attributable to 
extortion plots first and foremost and that the decision to have 
someone killed was made at a high level and the order passed 
down to the perpetrators, who most likely did not know the 
reasons for the killing.  Sunnis were being specifically 
targeted, he said, because the Shia-controlled government wanted 
to cleanse the south of 100 percent of the Sunni population. 
 
¶8.  (C)  As a result of the worsening situation for Sunnis over 
the past three years, Sheikh Khalid stated that "thousands" of 
Sunnis are seeking to leave Iraq.  He said that his wife's 
brother, a Sunni religious scholar, had been murdered last 
month, and his family had fled to Syria.  He himself recently 
returned from a trip to the United Arab Emirates where he was 
seeking employment and was considering emigrating.  The job fell 
through, and he returned to Iraq. 
 
Iranian Influence in Basrah 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶9.  (C)  On the subject of Iranian influence in Basrah, Sheikh 
Khalid clasped his hands together and said, "You can have lunch 
in Basrah and dinner in Iran, they are so close."  He said that 
he believed Iran's goal was to allow Iraq to become destabilized 
so that it could not threaten Iranian security, and he expressed 
hope that the United States would act to restrain Iranian 
influence in Iraq (see reftel). 
 
Jafari's Nomination 
--------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (C)  On Ibrahim Jafari, Sheikh Khalid said that he was not 
surprised that Jafari had been nominated again as Prime 
Minister, and that he was not opposed to Jafari.  Jafari could 
succeed, he said, if he "got busy" and tackled the issue of 
employment.  Jafari's biggest mistake in the past had been 
isolating certain groups in Iraq and allowing a culture of 
violence to foment. 
 
¶11.  Summary:  While the majority of the Basrah public is 
listening to Sheikh Khalid's voice of reason and appreciates his 
message of peace and tolerance, it is clear that conditions for 
Sunnis in Basrah province are worsening considerably.  It is 
likely that Sunnis will continue to emigrate from the area, 
which will exacerbate the problem of winning a seat for Sunnis 
on the BPC by a democratic vote. The results of the provincial 
election likely will determine if the Sunni population continues 
to eke out an existence in Basrah province or gives up entirely. 
 End Summary. 
GROSS